If you’re getting error msg 6358 which reads something like 300 is not a valid style number when converting to XML, it’s probably because you’re trying to convert a value to XML, but the style that you’re specifying isn’t supported for conversions to that data type.
It’s not that the conversion can’t happen, it’s just that it can’t happen using the style that you’re specifying.
Continue readingIf you’re using FOR XML in SQL Server to output your query results as XML, you might find yourself in the situation where the XML returned has no root element. Fortunately adding a root element is easy, as I’ll show you in this article.
When using the FOR XML clause in a query in SQL Server, we can generate an XML document either with or without an inline schema.
To generate it with an inline XSD schema simply include the XMLSCHEMA argument. We can alternatively include the namespace if we want to specify a particular namespace.
At the time of writing, the XMLSCHEMA argument is only available when in either AUTO or RAW mode.
In SQL Server, when we use FOR XML to return query results in an XML document, the resulting XML document is returned as a string by default. However, we can change this so that it’s returned in the xml data type.
To do this, all we need to do is append our query with the TYPE directive.
If you’re getting error msg 6825 that reads “ELEMENTS option is only allowed in RAW, AUTO, and PATH modes of FOR XML“, it’s probably because you’re trying to use the ELEMENTS directive while using EXPLICIT mode of the FOR XML clause.
As the message alludes to, this option is not available when using the EXPLICIT mode (it’s only allowed with the RAW, AUTO, and PATH modes).
However, SQL Server does provide us with an equivalent that provides the same result. When using EXPLICIT mode, we can use the ELEMENT directive instead. We apply this to the column names, instead of the end of the query. We can alternatively use the ELEMENTXSINIL directive to ensure that elements are generated even if the column contains a NULL value.
In SQL Server, the FOR XML clause allows us to return the results of a query as an XML document.
When we use this clause, we have various options for how we want to shape the resulting XML document.
Below is an explanation of how the FOR XML clause works, including the basic options we have when using it.
When using FOR XML in SQL Server, we can use the ELEMENTS directive to include a column as an element instead of an attribute. However by default, if a column contains a NULL value, no element is produced for that column in the resulting XML document. This may or may not be what we want, depending on the requirements.
If we want such columns to be included in the XML even when they contain NULL values, all we need to do is include the XSINIL option. This option specifies that any column that has a NULL value automatically gets an element with xsi:nil="true" in the resulting XML.
The alternative is ABSENT, which means columns with NULL values are excluded (this is the default behaviour).
When using FOR XML EXPLICIT in SQL Server, we can use the ELEMENT directive to include a column as an element instead of an attribute. However, this directive doesn’t allow for NULL values. What I mean is that if a column contains a NULL value, no element is produced for that column in the resulting XML document. This may or may not be what we want, depending on the requirements.
If we want such columns to be included in the XML even when they contain NULL values, we can use the ELEMENTXSINIL directive instead of ELEMENT.
In SQL Server, the FOR XML clause allows us to return the results of a query as an XML document. Simply by placing the FOR XML clause at the end of the query will output the results in XML.
When we do this, we have the option of specifying RAW, AUTO, EXPLICIT, or PATH mode. These modes allow us to shape the resulting XML in different ways, and so the mode we choose will determine how the XML is generated.
Below are examples of using EXPLICIT mode when generating XML from a SQL query.
In SQL Server, the FOR XML clause allows us to return the results of a query as an XML document. Simply by placing the FOR XML clause at the end of the query will output the results in XML.
When we do this, we have the option of specifying RAW, AUTO, EXPLICIT, or PATH mode. These modes allow us to shape the resulting XML in different ways, and so the mode we choose will determine how the XML is generated.
Below are examples of using RAW mode when generating XML from a SQL query.